Kinkora teams advance to senior A basketball finals

HAMPSHIRE – The Kinkora Blazers have an opportunity to sweep the P.E.I. School Athletic Association senior A basketball championships.

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The Kinkora boys and girls won their respective semifinal games at Bluefield High School on Wednesday night to earn berths in the gold-medal games on Saturday, also at Bluefield.

The Kinkora girls will play Bluefield in the championship game at 2 p.m., and the Blazers will meet the Morell Marlins in the boys’ final at 4 p.m.

The girls’ bronze-medal game between Charlottetown Rural Team Two and Morell will kick off the day’s action at 10 a.m. Colonel Gray and Morell will play the boys’ third-place game at noon.

In the girls’ semifinals, the Blazers defeated Charlottetown Rural Team Two 45-38, and the Bluefield Bobcats topped the Morell Marlins 44-33.

On the boys’ side, Kinkora got by Bluefield 68-50 while Morell pulled out a 63-61 win over Colonel Gray in the closest game of the day.

Following is a look at the semifinals:

Girls

Kinkora 45

Rural Team Two 38

A 9-0 run to start the third quarter stretched a 33-31 halftime lead for the Blazers, who never looked back in advancing to the gold-medal game.

Jill Lawless had a big game to lead the way for the Blazers, with 26 points and 10 boards. Maggy McGrath (7) and Briar Roberts (4), who did a great job controlling the flow of the play, were Kinkora’s other top scorers.

For the Raiders, Christina Lourenso led the way with 11 points, and Emma Bradley added eight.

Bluefield 44

Morell 33

A strong third quarter by the Bobcats proved to be the difference in this game.

Morell led 16-13 at the half, but the Bobcats took a 32-22 advantage in the third quarter, and cruised from there.

Strong rebounding and six three-pointers by Andrew MacCormack was the difference for the Blazers, who led from start to finish. Kinkora led 14-5 after the first quarter, 27-14 at halftime and 48-30 after three quarters.

The Colonels led 29-25 at the half, but a trio of three-pointers over a two-minute stretch early in the third quarter got the Marlins off and running to a 15-point spread, 59-31, after three quarters.

The Colonels rallied in the fourth quarter, and the score was tied 59-59 with 2:45 to play.

Shane Pendergast sank two foul shots to put Morell up 61-59 with 1:47 to play. Riley Berthiaume added a foul shot to make it 62-59 with 1:16 to go.

Mark Buell scored with 31 seconds remaining to draw Gray to within on 62-61, but a Pendergast foul shot with 11 seconds remaining gave the Marlins the two-point difference. Matt Hicken grabbed a defensive rebound with two seconds remaining to secure Morell’s victory.

Pendergast (19), Ethan Craig (18) and Hicken (8) had big games offensively for the Marlins.

For the Colonels, Buell had 27 points while Omaro Sefau and Clay Corney each chipped in with 10.